Finding Your Hooves Again
by Cloperella
Summary: Bellwether's ten year sentence is finally over. Upon her release, she receives an anonymous letter to go to the Grand Pangolin Arms apartments. What could be waiting for her at this location from this mysterious mammal?
1. Chapter 1

"One… vial of… Neighbeline… eyeshadow… stormy blue… number… three."

The sloth dressed in a pale blue uniform behind the plastic wall reached her claws into the container in front of her, lifting each item and moving them toward the magenta purse to her left at the speed of drying paint in a cold room. On the other side of the wall, listening to the clerk reading out her items, was a small white sheep looking up at the counter above her with a blank stare. She'd not bothered keeping track of the time when she'd begun hearing the sloth read her long-abandoned possessions out loud; she saw little point in such knowledge. She'd spent ten years of her life until now in the Zootopia Female Mammal Correctional Facility; several more minutes or even hours now wouldn't make up for the years she'd already lost behind those steel bars.

"One… pocket mirror of… mascara… Revlion… Dramatic Definition… brand."

Dawn Bellwether, former assistant mayor to Leodore Lionheart, former mayor of Zootopia, and now former prison convict. Part of the silver lining with her release was the fact that she could at last leave behind the same crappy meals she had to eat for an entire decade. She also thanked her stars to be rid of the same awful orange uniform that she'd been forced to wear the entire time. If nothing else, she could at least feign somewhat of a dignified appearance with her familiar red dress and dark blue coat over her shoulders.

"Four… packets… of… glasses lens… wipers… Preyda… brand."

The other silver lining was that Dawn would leave the harsh conditions of the other inmates within the prison complex. While prey animals made up ninety percent of the city's population, ten percent was still a big number to represent the amount of predator animals left. Whether convicted of right or wrongful arrests, the female predator inmates had kept up with current events leading up to Dawn's arrest, along with the prey animals who had close contacts with predator friends. Both sides made it clear from day one of Dawn's sentence that they didn't appreciate her plot to make predators out to look like the leading cause of problems in the city.

"One… Carrot… iPhone… fully charged… courtesy of… Zootopia… Female Mammal… Correctional… Facility."

While they never stooped to inflicting physical harm on her, the other imprisoned women found intricate ways to make Dawn's stay in prison more stressful than it needed to be. Some days, bigger animals would steal portions of the only meals she was allowed for the day, forcing her to shovel her meals down before anyone had a chance to steal them from her. Other days she would find the other women with a ball of white fluff in their paws, prompting her to raise a hoof to her head and realize they'd snipped the wool off and made her look ridiculous. She'd begun to grow numb to their hazing over the years, prompting them to grow bored and harass her less frequently. Still, Dawn was at least glad to leave an environment where she could have been picked on without anyone caring to come to her rescue.

"A large… collection… of… pens… and… pencils," the sloth above her listed, snapping Dawn from her thoughts, "A yellow… Derwool… number two… pencil."

Leaning her head back, the sheep couldn't fight the urge to groan anymore. While she'd thought she could put up with the sloth's tedious listing of her items, the image of a mountain of pens being read over several more minutes seemed just as much torture as the hazing she'd suffered for years. While still retaining her deadpan stare, Dawn directed her gaze up to the rhino security guard towering over her and the clerk, her green eyes staring through the lens of her large black-rimmed glasses. After looking down at her for a few seconds, the rhino lifted her hoof and tapped the cover next to her.

"Hey, Denise," she said in a soft voice. With a pen in her claws, the sloth took several seconds to turn her head and face the rhino who spoke to her. "That's not necessary. I'm sure Ms. Bellwether won't be too broken up if a few pens and pencils went missing."

"Oh… well… alright then," Denise replied, before moving to pick up the stack of pens and pencils by both claws, inching them toward the magenta purse next to her. The guard turned back, and Dawn mouthed a silent "thank you" toward her. Following a subtle nod from the rhino, the sloth reached into the plastic container in front of her once again. "And… one… final… item…" she began, holding up a small folded piece of paper, "From... a mammal… who wishes… to remain… anonymous." Her words caused Dawn's brow to furrow in confusion, having thought she would just hear items from her purse listed before she was officially discharged.

"What?" she asked, stepping forward and standing on her tip-hooves to peek over the edge of the counter, "Can I see it, please?"

"Sure…" the clerk replied, reaching down to pass the note under the plastic cover in front of her, "Here… you go..."

"Thank you, I apprec — ."

"Ma'am," the sloth finished, cutting off Dawn's response abruptly.

"... Thank you, I appreciate it," the sheep replied once she felt it safe to speak again. Unfolding the paper in her grasp, she pushed her glasses up along her snout before reading the printed font on the paper.

 _Dear Ms. Bellwether,_

 _Waiting outside for you is a taxi cab. It will take you to The Grand Pangolin Arms apartment complex. The cab fare has already been paid for. Come to apartment 3B. The landlady has the key. Just tell her your name._

Seeing nothing more written on the front, Dawn turned the paper over to see the back was blank, nothing else typed for her. No additional instruction, no signature, nothing.

"I-I don't understand," she began, turning the paper back over to look at the short message for her, "Who wrote this for me? And why do they want me to come to this address?"

"Ha… ha… ha…" the facility's clerk laughed slowly with a wide-open mouth, "If I… told you… they wouldn't… be… anonymous…"

"I'm just confused. My family is the only — ."

"Would they?" the sloth cut off Dawn again. Following several seconds of silence, the sheep took a deep breath to keep her patience intact before continuing.

"My family are the only mammals I've had contact with in the past ten years. I'm just worried that this anonymous mammal might be someone trying to get back at me for what I did a decade ago. How do I know I'm not walking into someone's trap or something?"

"Oh… don't worry," Denise assured her, "We know… who it is… they're someone… you know… as well. They just… want it… to…"

 _Be a surprise?_ Dawn thought to herself, drumming her hooves against the front of her dress.

"Be… a…"

 _Surprise._

"... Surprise," the sloth finished, much to Dawn's relief, "You have… nothing to… worry… about. You're in… no… danger."

While still suspicious of the note without a signature, Dawn folded up the paper and put it in the right breast pocket of her coat. She watched Denise pick up the magenta purse and took her sweet time lowering it under her side of the counter, into a bin under her feet. She pushed the bin forward, and the wall in front of Dawn jutted out so that she could reach inside to pick it up.

"Mrs. Kera… will… escort you… outside… Ms. Bellwether."

"Thank you very — "

"Have a… nice…"

Her eyes widening with impatience, Dawn looked over to the rhino, who picked up on her plight and motioned her hoof to follow her outside.

"Okay, you have a great day too, bye bye!" Dawn said quickly, before scampering away from the desk and following Officer Kera.

"... Day… Ms... Bellwether."

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Dawn took solace in the fact that she at last had her possessions back in their rightful place. It felt comforting to have the weight of her purse hanging from her left shoulder again, bouncing against her hip with each step she took. A few seconds passed before Officer Kera opened the door, letting the morning light of the sun spill in. Dawn had to put a hoof in front of her face to shield her eyes from the sudden brightness, stepping forward while the officer held the door open for her.

It felt surreal putting her hoof on the concrete outside of the correctional facility. She'd been outside the walls plenty of times, when forced to clean up litter on the highways or other menial jobs for her and the other inmates. This was the first time she'd been allowed to stand outside without her orange uniform on, no longer a convict, but a free mammal once again. It felt like standing on another planet after her confinement to the same place for a decade without the freedom to leave as she pleased.

"You've got your things," the rhino behind her said, bringing her out of her stupor, "And your cab's right there." Following her statement, Dawn looked to her left, seeing a yellow taxi car with the engine still running, a large brown bear browsing through his phone in front of a red Lamb Rover parked behind it. "Good luck out there." With the door slamming behind her, Dawn looked toward the bear, who clocked her presence as she walked toward him.

"You are Dawn Bellwether, yah?" the bear asked in a deep, gruff voice and a heavy accent.

"Yes, that's me," the sheep replied.

"I take you to Grand Pangolin. Cab fare is already paid."

"That's great, but could you hold on for a second?" Dawn asked, pointing to the Lamb Rover behind his taxi. "That's my sister in the car. She was supposed to pick me up before we knew about this whole… arrangement here. Let me just go talk to her and let her know what's going on." The bear snorted with annoyance upon looking toward the car behind him.

"Make it quick. Time is money."

Forcing herself to smile at him, the sheep rolled her eyes while she stepped toward the red car. She opened the passenger door and saw another sheep identical to her, wearing khaki shorts and a tight-fitting blue t-shirt, sitting in the driver's seat.

"Hey Eve," Dawn said as her sister's unobscured green eyes returned a droll stare toward her.

"Hey," Eve replied with a curt tone, "What's going on with the cab in front of me? Is he here to pick you up instead?"

"Yeah. Look, something weird came up," Dawn explained, fishing the note out of her coat and passing it to Eve. Her sister took the note and unfolded it, taking a few seconds to read it over.

"No name, huh?" she observed, turning the paper over just like Dawn had a few minutes ago, "Yeah, that's not weird at all."

"I know, I don't feel right about it either. Which is why I want you to follow me there."

"Or you could just drop it altogether? The plan was that I pick you up and let you stay at my place for a while until you could find a job and get back on your hooves, right?"

"Yes, and that's still the plan. I just… I don't know, part of me wants to see where this goes. They said they knew who sent the note, and that I know them too, but weren't telling me by the sender's request. They said I don't have anything to worry about. Might as well see what it is, right?" Dawn's sister rolled her eyes and emitted an annoyed groan.

"Fine. Let's just make this quick, I've got places I need to be today."

"Yeah, you and him both," Dawn replied, looking toward the bear staring at her as well. "Look, I know you're going out of your way to help me, and I'm not trying to ask too much of you; just do this one extra thing for me, please?"

"Whatever," Eve replied, before Dawn stepped back and shut the door. Nodding toward the bear, she watched him move back to the driver's seat, while she opened the door and scooted herself to the middle seat.

"We leave now, yah?" asked the bear while Dawn buckled her seatbelt.

"Yah — I mean, yes," Dawn replied with an apologetic smile. The bear responded with a low grumble under his breath before shifting the car into drive and pulling away from the sidewalk. She felt her nerves begin to creep along her spine, knowing the cab was en route to a location specified by someone she had no idea of in advance. The clerk had told her she had nothing to fear, but considering how much hatred she'd received during her sentence, how much trust could she put into those words? Perhaps the entire institution had it out for her and wanted to make sure her punishment lasted beyond her time in prison?

An even worse thought struck her mind. Perhaps a mammal related to one of the predators Doug had drugged held a personal grudge against her. Maybe they'd set this meeting up as a trap to abduct her and take her to a different location, a place with all sorts of horrifying devices designed to test her fortitude to fight for her own survival. She could imagine that the predator might get some sick kicks out of watching her pushed to her physical and psychological limits just to make it out of their traps with her life.

Following a shiver up her spine, Dawn shook the thought from her mind. It was silly of her to let her paranoia put such an outrageous thought into her head. The clerk had said that they knew who had sent the note; they'd dropped it off themselves, after all. If they had malicious plans for her after she'd arrived at the place, then they'd be the first target the police would go after for investigation. Dawn rubbed her temples and took some deep breaths to calm herself. Whatever was going on here, it couldn't be as bad as her fearful mind made it out out to be.

After a ten-minute drive, the taxi pulled to a stop in front of the Grand Pangolin Arms apartments, on the corner of Wallaby and Dewclaw roads. Unbuckling her seatbelt, Dawn slid to the door she'd entered from and pushed it open.

"Cab fare was paid just to take you here," the bear said while she stepped onto the ground outside, "I go now, yah?"

"That's fine," Dawn replied, "Thank you for the ride." The bear said nothing in return, instead pulling away and down the road in front of him. A few seconds later, Eve's Lamb Rover pulled into the slot the taxi had left behind, rolling the window down so Dawn would speak with her. "If I don't come back or send you a text in fifteen minutes, go talk to the police, okay?"

"Got it," Eve replied, "I still think this is a bad idea."

"Noted." As the window rolled back up, Dawn turned away and walked into the building. She was greeted to the sight of dingy wooden walls throughout the hallway on the first floor, rusted metal mailboxes on the left wall, and a small desk on the right. Dawn strolled across the creaky floorboards to the front desk, standing on her tip-hooves to peek over the counter. An old armadillo with a pair of glasses smaller than her own sat in a chair on the other side of the desk, wearing a red frock and a beady necklace around her neck. She seemed busy with a crossword puzzle on her desk, taking no notice of the sheep standing right in front of her.

"Excuse me?" Dawn asked the armadillo, drawing no response from her whatsoever, "Excuse me, ma'am?" she tried again before tapping her hoof on the counter. The armadillo's eyes widened at the sight of her hoof before she turned up to look at who it belonged to in surprise.

"Oh!" she uttered as she held her chest, "You startled me. I apologize; my hearing has declined in the past few years. I didn't even know anyone was standing there."

"That's okay," Dawn said, forcing herself to smile.

"My name is Dharma. I'm the landlady of Grand Pangolin Arms. Are you looking for lodging?"

"Um, not exactly. My name is Dawn Bellwether. I'm here because — "

"Hm?" Dharma responded, cupping her right ear and leaning forward, "I can't hear you that well. What's your name?"

"Dawn Bellwether."

"Fawn Wellsetter?"

"Dawn. Bellwether," the sheep enunciated, much slower and clearer than her previous attempts.

"Ah, Ms. Bellwether! I've been expecting you," she replied. The armadillo hoisted herself up from her chair, hobbling toward the back wall where an assortment of keys dangled from small hangers in the wall. "Room 3B, right?"

"Yes. If you don't mind, could you please tell me — ?"

"There you go," Dharma said as she placed the keys on the desk in front of Dawn, "I would show you to the room myself, but — ergh," the armadillo let out a strained grunt upon sitting back down in her chair, "My legs aren't what they used to be. The door you're looking for is on the third floor, second door on the right."

"Oh, okay. Thank you," Dawn said, grabbing the keys and heading up the stairs she'd passed to get to the desk while Dharma pulled out her cellphone and began texting. Every step Dawn took creaked just as loud as the floor she'd entered upon had, making her fearful that one of the steps might break and cause her to fall through. After a minute of creaky climbing, Dawn finally reached the top of the stairs, the third floor of the apartment building. Looking up at the doors, she made her way past the first door, 3A, and reached the next one, 3B. Glancing at the note she'd received at the institution once again, she confirmed that she had arrived at the very apartment she was supposed to enter.

 _Let's just get it over with,_ Dawn thought with steeled nerves, _No vengeful predators, no horror movie traps…. I hope._

Swallowing her lingering fear, Dawn reached up and inserted the key into the hole, twisting it and unlocking the door. Pushing it open, Dawn poked her head through, her eyes scanning for any immediate danger. All she could see though was a small bed with blue sheets, a wooden desk with a reading lamp, and an oak shelf on the left wall along old paw print-patterned wallpaper. Not sensing any immediate danger, Dawn took a few steps in, leaving the door open behind her. Upon looking around, she noticed a mirror leaning against the right wall showing her reflection. Dawn stepped forward and lifted her glasses a bit to look at her eyes. Much to her dismay, she could see some noticeable bags had begun forming at both sides near the bridge of her snout. She'd known it to be true already, but seeing it again reminded her of how much time had passed. She'd entered the slammer a relatively young adult and had come out nearing middle age. Leaning her head against the glass, a bit of fog formed over her reflection from a snort of disappointment.

"I know it's not much," a voice said behind her, "But it's the best I could do with my salary. And I'd say for paying enough to cover the next four months upfront, that's a pretty sweet deal."

Dawn didn't even need to turn around to know who stood behind her. That voice was unforgettable. It was the same voice who had promised to "look out for the little guy," prompting her to run alongside him in his campaign. The voice who yelled at her over the phone speaker, the one who belittled her by mangling her name, told her to watch where she was going when he bumped into her and knocked her over.

"Hello, Lionheart," Dawn said as she kept her head on the mirror.

"Hey, Bellwether," the lion behind her replied, dressed in a short-sleeve button down with blue and white stripes below his light-brown mane, along with a pair of long khaki pants. "I wasn't sure if you'd made plans for where to go after your release."

"I did. I planned to stay with my sister for a while. She's waiting for me outside."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't know that." Lionheart raised his right paw and nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Well, if that's what you two have your heart set on, then by all means. But I just thought you'd like to have your own place. You know, without having to impose on your family?"

"What makes you think I'm imposing on them, hm?" Dawn asked, her tone flat as she spoke to him, "How do you know she's not thrilled to have me back in her life, welcoming me back with open hooves?"

"Okay, 'impose' was a poor choice of words. I meant that perhaps you'd like to have a place all to yourself without having to share it with someone else. Have a little bit of independence, maybe?"

"Can't call it independence if someone's already paid my rent for four months," Dawn replied, a hint of annoyance making itself apparent in her voice, "How'd you even do that, anyway? Did you win the lottery or something and throw some money away out of pity?"

"No, actually. After my three-year sentence ended, I pretty much had to start over. Couldn't rely on my wife anymore, since she filed for divorce and took half of my stuff with her, along with the kids. Ended up getting a job at Wallaby-Mart as one of the floor workers, had my snout to the grindstone for about two years before my work ethic started getting noticed by my superiors. Ended up climbing to store manager in another two years and made a bit more money than I did before. Apart from child support and paying for the meager shack I live in, I didn't have much use for the extra money, so I thought it'd be of better use renting this place out for you."

"And why did you feel like you needed to do this, huh?" Dawn snapped, turning around to look at him, "What's this supposed to be, some elaborate way of apologizing?"

"Well, yes, kind of," Lionheart explained, "That's what I intended to be, at least."

"For what? Do you even know what you're apologizing for?"

"I do. I'm apologizing for underestimating you. For not appreciating all the hard work you put in for me and the city at large. And for never letting you share the spotlight while I hogged it all for myself."

"And you think that renting a shoddy and rickety apartment makes up for all of that? That it's supposed to make up for years of neglect and bullying from you?"

"...Yes?" Lionheart replied, "I hoped at the very least it would be a good start."

"And then what?" Dawn asked, her voice raising with her anger, "What comes after this start? What's the next step of your master plan to earn my forgiveness?"

"I don't know. I'm not a miracle worker. But if you need anything Bellwether, anything at all, please, don't hesitate to ask me. I want to help you get back on — ."

"I don't WANT your help!" Bellwether shouted at him, "There's a dozen other mammals in this world I'd ask for help from before I even thought of asking for it from you, and even if none of them helped me I'd wonder if I was better off living on the streets instead!"

"Okay, ouch," Lionheart replied, closing his eyes and inhaling through his nose. "Look Bellwether, I know we've got bad history between us, and it's my fault. But I feel bad about what I did, and I want to do what I can to make it right."

"Tough crap!" Bellwether screamed, her voice cracking from the sudden rise in volume, "Maybe I don't want to take anything from you if it means giving you a clear conscience. Maybe I want you to feel bad for what you did to me! Maybe after ten years of having to put up with all the stress I went through in prison, your guilt-ridden conscience will make up for the fact that you just had to put up with it for three years!"

"Come on, Bellwether, please — ."

"Don't 'Bellwether' me, you big, stupid oaf!" Dawn screamed as she stepped forward, her eyes beginning to shine behind her glasses while she bore her teeth together, "Predators like you made me feel smaller than I actually am! Ever since I was a lamb growing up in the poor districts, all I've heard was the same malarky. Jaguar and wolf cubs saying, 'ooh, look at Ms. Prey-Privilege, getting a free ride because she's prey, must be nice'! They didn't realize I had to work my tail off to get the best grades in my class and pushing myself to rise above poverty! They thought I got a free ticket just because of my species, and they picked on me all the time because of it." Dawn could feel her eyes beginning to burn as she looked up at Lionheart, her vision of him becoming blurry while her teeth remained clenched.

"Then when I graduated college at the top of my class, I got involved in politics, and a few years later, you chose me to run alongside you as your assistant mayor. You treated me like an equal and floated me in front of all the other sheep, saying that despite our difference in size and species, we were both the same in the big changes we could make. What happened to all of that after you got elected, huh?" Dawn asked, stepping forward and poking Lionheart hard on his thigh, "Poof! Gone! It vanishes without a trace in the air, and you start pushing me around, just like all those jerks I had to grow up with! You made me think you were different and that other predators could be different too, but no! You and all of the others are the same!" Her hooves began to pummel against the beefy leg in front of her with heated fury, the lion doing nothing to try and stop her while his eyes remained fixed on her the entire time. "You're all a bunch of big, stupid, jealous meatheads who have to keep the little ones under your foot, because there's more of us than you, and you're afraid of our bigger numbers!"

Dawn pulled her hooves away from Lionheart's leg and stepped back after she realized what she was doing. She knew she couldn't hurt him, but the fact that she'd gotten so riled up and lost control had scared her. She could feel the moisture in her eyes fill to their limit and seep outward, collecting in the wool below her eyes. She remembered this feeling, the overwhelming sense of helplessness hanging over her after she'd spent so long working as Lionheart's assistant mayor. It felt like the same helplessness that pushed her to start plotting against him and other predators, that had her seek out Doug Ramses and hire him to start working on the nighthowler serum and use it on predators under the radar.

"That's why…" Dawn sobbed as she lost the energy to stand and fell on all fours to the floor, "That's why I… I didn't have a choice…" Without any restraint left, Dawn lowered her face and continued to sob, her tears falling from her eyes and onto the wooden floor below her. It was pointless. Even after a decade spent in the "correctional facility" her stance on things hadn't changed a bit. She still hated Lionheart, and by extension, predators by nature. She didn't want to hate them, but events in her life had pushed her to that mindset, from her early days as a lamb all the way to adulthood. She'd grown tired of waiting to find the right predators who wouldn't pick on her or take advantage of her meager size. Now, with her emotions bubbling over, the predator she hated most could see how weak and frail she was on the inside, just like on the outside.

"Bellwether…" Lionheart began, easing himself onto his knees in front of the crying sheep, "I get it."

"What do you mean?" Dawn asked, sniffing before she pulled her arm up to wipe her nose.

"I get why you did it. Why you felt like you had to rise up and seize control over predators in the city." Feeling a bit of surprise, Bellwether picked her head up to look at the lion and figure out if she had heard him correctly. "I'm not saying I approve or that it was the right thing to do. But I get why you felt like you had to do it. You felt cornered. You felt like the walls were closing in, and you had to fight back before they crushed you."

Her eyes still red and irritated from her tears, Dawn continued to look upon the lion kneeling before her. She saw his face had adopted a bit of shame, looking at the wooden floor and away from her as he continued to speak.

"If you're being honest, I might as well be honest too, Bellwether. I… wasn't exactly the best mayor for Zootopia," he admitted, "I wasn't looking out for the best interests of the city. I just wanted to make sure that I wouldn't lose my place as the head of the city. That's all I ever cared about from the day I won the election. I told the press I did the wrong thing for the right reason' when I imprisoned the savage predators, but Judy was right when they arrested me: I just wanted to protect my job." Lionheart took a moment to breathe in, his shoulders rising before he let out a regretful sigh through his nose. "I wasn't the mayor that this city deserved. I never was, and I never would have been even if they'd never caught me."

After a few seconds of silence, Lionheart lifted himself off of his knees, wiping some of the dirt and dust that his legs had picked up. With Dawn still on the floor, she watched him turn around and walk toward the door, stopping halfway through and resting his left paw on the doorframe.

"Look, if you don't want the apartment, that's fine," Lionheart said with a sense of defeat, "You can give the keys back to Ms. Dharma, and she'll put up an ad for it on Preyslist. Should sell pretty quick if she lists that four months are already paid off, and if she mentions that Officer Hopps used to live here."

Still in tears, Dawn couldn't believe what she'd just heard. The apartment she was in right now, the one Lionheart had paid his own money for her to stay in, was the same place that Judy Hopps had lived in when she'd started her career in the ZPD, the same officer responsible for her imprisonment. While not the worst apartment in the city, she had a hard time believing that one of Zootopia's most renowned officers had gotten her start from such a frugal living space. With such significance in mind, Dawn felt surprised that Lionheart had managed to snag the room in the first place, imagining several mammals would want to stay in the place that Hopps had once lived in.

"Just… don't think that all predators are as bad as me, Bellwether. There's a lot of good predators in this city who don't try to intimidate prey to get what they want."

"Like...like who?" Bellwether asked, picking her glasses up off of her face in order to wipe her eyes of the wetness still clouding her sight.

"Well… like Officer Wilde, for instance," Lionheart replied, before turning to face the sheep still on the floor, "I don't know if you're aware, but he ended up marrying Officer Hopps a few months before the end of my sentence." He chuckled softly. "They even had a kid, half fox, half bunny. Cu — uh, fine looking kid too. I've seen them shopping around a number of times; even just a month ago, but I've never had the courage to talk to them. He's gotten a lot bigger; getting almost as tall as his mom. Both of them are good parents, especially Nick. Some of the employees have gushed about how his eyes light up when he's interacting with his son. I think he might be stealing the competition for Father of the Year from other dads since his son was born."

Dawn sat in silence on the floor, contemplating over what she'd just heard. She'd remembered various times when forced into the prison's TV room seeing glimpses of Nick and Judy on the news, whether it was participating in the equal species marriage protests or tying the knot themselves several months later. She'd still held contempt for both of them since they were responsible for putting her behind bars in the first place, and had even stooped to using the wool from her own head as earplugs to block out listening to any news about them. She'd not realized they'd had a child and that the fox was such a shining example of a father figure that it was obvious even to department store employees.

"Well, I don't think there's much more I can do here," Lionheart said, turning away from her again, "It's up to you what you want to do from here on out. I hope you have a great life, whatever you decide to do. Despite what others might think, I believe you deserve to find some peace in your life after all you've dealt with. Goodbye, Bellwether."

Lionheart stepped away from the door and walked down the hall, leaving Dawn on her knees as she mulled over everything that had happened. Between meeting someone from her past that she despised and learning he'd paid for an apartment that once belonged to the rabbit who'd put her in prison, she'd been given quite a lot to think about in such a little amount of time. A beep and vibration from her purse startled her, prompting her to reach into her purse and pull out her cellphone. As expected, it was from her sister Eve, texting to make sure she was okay.

 _Hey, it's been fifteen minutes. You still alive or what?_

Dawn felt shocked to read such a thing. Had fifteen minutes truly passed since she'd stepped into the building? After Lionheart had appeared and the two of them had gone all over the place in their discussion, she'd ended up losing track of time. Dawn tilted her phone to the side, quickly typing up a response to diminish her sister's worries.

 _Yeah, I'm alive. I'm coming down, be there in about a minute._

Putting her phone back in her purse, she lifted the small bag back over her shoulder and stepped out through the open door, making her way back to the end of the hallway and down the creaky staircase. Once she'd reached the bottom, she turned to the side and saw the landlady looking up from her phone toward her.

"Ah, there you are," Dharma said to her, "So Ms. Bellwether, have you made a decision?"

Dawn lifted the keys in her hooves, looking at the golden metal structure that Judy herself had once used long ago. Despite its size, the little object felt quite heavy to her at that moment. Her mind felt weighed down by a multitude of things: living in the former home of the officer who'd busted her, having the rent paid by a predator she'd conspired against, her sister waiting outside to take her back to her own place. A multitude of possibilities swam through her brain, making her struggle to keep her head above the rising sea of doubt she felt around her at the moment.

"... Yes, ma'am," Dawn said after a moment's hesitation, "I think I know what I want to do."


	2. Chapter 2

While most citizens still weighed down their mattresses for a few more hours of sleep at the ungodly hour of 5 a.m., others had to start their workdays even before the sun had begun its own shift. A pair of headlights belonging to a beat-up red Furcedes cut through the pitch-black darkness still hanging over Zootopia, pulling into the mostly empty parking lot of Wallaby-Mart. Parking near the other cars in the back corner of the lot, the car's engine shut off, and out stepped the driver: a tall lion dressed in black slacks and a button-down Wallaby-Mart shirt, with the name tag on his left reading "Store Manager: Lionheart."

Reaching into his car, Lionheart pulled out a coffee thermos and a bagged lunch before locking his car and walking across the empty lot toward the front entrance. He grumbled a bit to himself at the long walk he always had to make to get to the store itself. Company policy demanded that all employees — including managers — park near the back of the lot to keep the front slots open for paying customers. He understood that they needed to cater to the mammals that kept their business thriving, but he found it a little unfair that he and his team of employees had to suffer just a little bit more when they were the ones making that business possible every morning and evening.

 _And of course, when corporate visits, where do they park?_ Lionheart asked himself while he took a sip of coffee, _The front slots! Because their job is_ _ **much**_ _more important than ours, so they can't afford to waste their time walking like we have to._

Lionheart looked toward the door a few yards ahead of him to see his crew of employees waiting outside the door for him to unlock it and let them clock in. Even from a distance, he could recognize Mary Cuta, the spotted hyena leaning against the wall, keeping her teeth busy with some chewing gum. Just a foot above her ankle stood the ferret Jerry. He had an earbud in one ear listening to his iCarrot, while the other ear listened to the conversation taking place above him between Sable the antelope and Melanie the panda. More employees would arrive later on, like the cashiers and the customer service reps. Lionheart envied the lucky animals that got to sleep for an extra hour before coming into work. Even if he earned more per paycheck than them, he felt like it didn't cover the time he could spend catching some Zs.

Seeing the mix of prey and predator employees reminded Lionheart of something, prompting him to move his lunch bag into his armpit and pull his smartphone out. Scrolling to one of his more recent contacts, his thumbs typed out a message.

 _Hey, I just got here. Come on out._

Putting his phone away, Lionheart looked up to see his employees acknowledge his presence just a few feet away.

"You're late, Leo," Mary said with a smirk, "Doesn't that look bad for the company if even the managers aren't on time?"

"Yeah yeah, save it," Lionheart fired back in a light-hearted tone, "I'm gonna punch all your times in manually so it won't count you late, so you're welcome for getting some free time."

"Oh boy, we all earned a free dime by sitting out here doing nothing," Jerry said while taking the bud out of his ear, "I can see my retirement fund piling up before my eyes." His wisecrack drew a laugh from his coworkers, even Lionheart, who couldn't help but chortle at his quick wit.

"So you gonna let us in or what, boss?" Mary asked, her eyes moving between he and the keyhole on the sliding doors.

"Just a moment. We've got a new employee joining us today, and I want to give her a proper welcome before we go in." Leodore looked out toward the parking lot and tilted his head up with a knowing look on his face. "In fact, here she comes right now." The employees looked in the direction their manager did to see a smaller animal walking toward them, just a few inches taller than Jerry.

"Oh hey, who's the new sheep?" Melanie asked, "Are those big glasses of hers for real? They kind of make her look like…" The panda found herself unable to complete her sentence when the sheep drew closer to she and the other employees. All of them turned their heads to look back toward Lionheart, a mix of confusion and anger on their faces. Lionheart stared through the crowd toward the sheep wearing a fearful look on her face and motioned her to walk toward him.

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet the newest member of our team: Dawn Bellwether," Lionheart announced, the sheep next to his knee having trouble keeping eye contact with all of the workers staring at her, "She's going to be in charge of inventory, so you'll see her in the back of the store counting up what we have on the shelves. Now, I shouldn't have to say this, because it's what you all agreed to when you signed your employee contract. I'm gonna say it anyway, because it never hurts to give a reminder." The lion cleared his throat before he resumed speaking, snapping the harsh gazes of the mammals away from the quivering sheep.

"'Here at Wallaby-Mart, you're not just part of a group of coworkers: you're part of an ever-growing family, one that spans the entire city of Zootopia. Every mammal that wears a Wallaby-Mart uniform shows with pride that they're all working toward the same goal, which is to provide excellent customer satisfaction at the lowest prices available. As such, you will treat every member within your family of workers with dignity, respect and gratitude as your own biological relatives.'"

 _Nailed it,_ Lionheart praised himself internally, proud that he'd still had that passage memorized from the employee guidebook and contract that he had to give every new employee who worked there.

"Now then, with that said, I want to remind you all of something that's not stated in your contract, but is still every bit as important. Every one of us here has made mistakes in our past. We all have our reputations in one part of the city or another. Nobody's background is perfect. But when you put on that uniform and walk through these doors, you all agree to leave that past behind and move forward with whatever challenges the day brings you. So, let's all focus on doing what we do best, like it's just another day. Agreed?" His question was met with several seconds of silence, the mammals in front of him staring at the sheep next to his leg. Eventually the silence passed, and their eyes looked toward their boss.

"Agreed," all of them said in monotonous unison.

"Excellent!" Lionheart said, before turning to the door and using his keys to unlock the doors. Pulling it open, he stayed outside while each mammal walked through and into the store. Once everyone had entered, he stepped through himself and relocked the doors, planning to keep them locked for another hour until he'd have to start letting other employees in later.

"They hate me," Bellwether said from below him, prompting him to turn around and look down at her apprehensive face.

"Yeah, they do," Lionheart admitted, watching the sheep's ears sink as she winced, "My coworkers hated me too when I started working here seven years ago. They got over it. They'll get over you too."

"Will they?" Bellwether asked while Lionheart walked past her toward his office at a pace to let her keep up with him, "The city thought I deserved a longer sentence than you because they thought my crime was worse. What if they think the same thing?"

"Then it might take a little longer for them to get over it. But they will get over it. Or if they refuse to, then that's their choice." Lionheart saw that his words weren't doing much to lift the sheep's spirits at the moment. He turned to unlock the door to his office, switching on the lights and stepping through. "Take a seat for a moment," he said, powering up his computer while Bellwether lifted herself up into the seat across from him, "Something I've had to learn over the past few years is that you have to accept that you can't make everyone like you, even if you're trying to do the right thing. Some mammals just won't let the past go, even if they don't have a clean slate themselves. It sucks, but it's the truth." Bellwether kept her head down the entire time Lionheart spoke. Her eyes remained fixed on her hooves, as if hoping to distract herself from the world around her.

"However…" Lionheart began, taking another sip of his coffee to help himself wake up a little bit more, "If any of the employees let their grudge come between you and your job or your well-being, they're not going to work here for very long. I meant it when I said it out there, that everyone needs to put the past behind them. If there's someone here giving you trouble, I want you to come tell me about it. I'll give them a stern warning to let you do your job in peace, and if they don't let up, then they'll just have to find somewhere else to work." Bellwether's head turned up to look at Lionheart as he spoke, her face in disbelief with a glimmer of hope in her eye. He hadn't seen such a thing since the day she'd signed on to run alongside him as his assistant mayor so long ago, when she'd believed he had her and other sheep's best interests in mind. This time he meant it; at least for the sheep in front of him at the moment.

"You mean it?" Bellwether asked as her hooves gripped the side of the seat.

"Absolutely," Lionheart replied with a smile, "We ex-convicts gotta look out for each other, right?" Following an amused grin from Bellwether, Lionheart turned back to his computer screen. "Let me just log everybody's timestamp in the system, then I'll walk you to backstock and show you the ropes."

A few minutes passed, and the two mammals exited the door to his office and into the store itself. With his thermos in his grasp, Lionheart gave a familiar nod toward Mary, who pushed along a wagon lined with custodial supplies.

"So, I noticed on your application you put 'Grand Pangolin' for your home address," Lionheart said once they were clear of any other employees near them, "How do you like the place?"

"It's comfy," Bellwether replied, "Just has the bare essentials. And despite what online reviews said about noise complaints, it's actually pretty quiet."

"That's because the two antelopes who lived next to you moved out before you got there, about two years ago. Funny story; Dharma told me that the moment they moved out and things got quiet, that's when her hearing started to fade."

"Oh no!" Bellwether said with a bit of a chuckle, "That's sad."

"Yeah, but she didn't seem too broken up about it. She said she found the irony kind of funny." Lionheart took another swig of his coffee and nodded toward Sable running a large broom across the store's floor several feet from them. "By the way, I'd appreciate if you didn't tell anyone about your prepaid rent," he said with a hushed voice, "Neither the employees nor corporate is going to be happy if they catch wind that your boss is giving you more financial support than just a bi-weekly paycheck."

"Don't worry about it. If there's one thing I remember how to do before getting arrested, it's how to keep a secret."

"Good to know. Alright, let me show you how things work back here," Lionheart said as he held the door to the back stock-area open for Bellwether.

* * *

Another day, another herd of customers prowling around the aisles of Wallaby-Mart in the afternoon. While the front remained busy with the store's employees restocking shelves and tidying up the floors, one soul remained behind the bright walls and abundant store items. In the dingy gray back stock-area of the store, Dawn Bellwether strolled through a large rack of boxed items still on the loading dock. The device in her hooves allowed her to snap a picture of the barcode on the side of the box no matter how big, and the store's database would recognize the items in the box. All she had to do was open each box and ensure that the allotted number of items were delivered, and log that in to confirm their delivery.

Dawn had been busy with this particular order for about half an hour since its delivery. The box she'd just snapped a picture of was the last one on the dock. Running her hoof along the seam of the tape and slicing it apart, she opened the box to see what lay inside: a number of Dr. Bristles soda cartons. Eyeballing the number of rows and sizing them up, she estimated they'd received a full box of six cartons from how they stacked to the top of the box. While she didn't consider the job rocket science, Dawn felt somewhat prideful that after working for a month at Wallaby-Mart, she'd become familiar with the routine of cataloging inventory like the back of her hoof.

"Hey Dawn," a charismatic voice called out to her from behind, just as she punched in the number of items in the box, "How far along are you on this shipment here?"

"Just finishing up right now, Leo," Dawn said, exiting one screen back to begin finalizing her task.

"Wow, seriously? It takes some of the others about an hour to do that much. You've developed a knack for this pretty quick," Leo praised, "Have you taken your lunch break today?"

"I have not. I'm starving."

"Well, if you're finishing up, you want to join me? I was just about to head to the break room."

"Sure, that sounds great. Just let me finish this one final thing, and…" Dawn drew out the last syllable for a few seconds as she clicked the Submit button, then exited out of the program, "Done."

"Alright. Nice job." Taking the device from Dawn's hooves, Leo placed it on the desk against the back wall, then the two of them stepped out into the shopping area of the store. Dawn felt a slight sting in her eyes from the brightness of the place, having spent so much time in the back where the lighting wasn't as intense. She turned to the right to follow her lion manager to the break room for lunch, when a voice from behind caught her attention.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" a soft female voice said to her. Dawn had to fight the urge to groan. If she and Leo had stepped out a few seconds earlier or a few seconds later, they might have made it to lunch without being stopped. Company policy prevented them from ignoring customers even if heading to their break, so Dawn had to force herself to smile before turning around.

"Yes ma'am, how can I…?" Dawn's smile dropped into one of disbelief when her eyes processed the eye-level face staring back at her. She'd hadn't recognized the voice after not having heard it for ten long years, but she'd never forget the violet eyes surrounded by gray fur and two long ears on top of her head.

It was Officer Judy Hopps, standing right in front of Dawn, smiling as if seeing an old friend again after so long. The rabbit wasn't dressed in her usual police uniform blues though; instead she was adorned in more casual attire, a gray short-sleeve shirt with the straps of her black undershirt over her shoulders, along with a pair of tight-fitting yoga pants. She wasn't alone, though. Next to her stood the red fox that had helped put she and her boss behind bars: Nick Wilde, dressed in a green polo shirt and jeans. Dawn noticed just the tiniest patch of white had begun to form in the middle of Nick's face just above his nose.

Dawn turned around to look up at her boss, seeing he wore the same look of disbelief on his face that she did at the moment. Even with the years of experience he had over her, the feeling of day-one jitters had reclaimed Lionheart once again with a powerful vengeance. Despite the commotion going on in her head, she knew she had to carry out her job at the moment, and forced herself to speak.

"Oh, h-hi, Ju — uh," Dawn stammered after staring back at the bunny, "I-I mean, Off-Officer — ."

"Judy's fine, Ms. Bellwether," the rabbit replied.

"Ju-Judy, right." Dawn cleared her throat, swallowing hard before forcing herself to continue, "What can I help you with?"

"We don't need help or anything. We were just wondering if we could chat with you both for a moment. You're not busy, are you?"

"Uh…?" Dawn looked at her boss again, who responded with a shrug of his shoulders and a forced smile, "I guess we're not, no. I'm just surprised that you'd want to… talk to us, of all mammals."

"I know it probably feels weird, but trust me," Judy began with a reassuring tone, "I've put the past behind me. Both of us have, right Nick?"

"That's right," Nick said, lifting his paw up for Judy to grab hold of it, both of their pads touching one another, "I know what it's like to have a shady past and try to start a new life past it. Believe me when I say that it's possible to move forward. Your past may always be a part of you, but you don't have to let it define you."

"Well, that's nice of you both to say," Leo chimed in above Dawn, "Glad to know you two aren't the type to hold grudges."

"Well, we wouldn't be setting a good example if we did, would we?" Nick asked, before turning to look behind him, he and Judy stepping to the side and parting the space between them. Both Dawn and Leo again wore faces of stunned disbelief when they saw the third mammal in Nick and Judy's company.

She didn't know what to call the species of the young male cub in blue shorts and a Freedom Furce t-shirt, but it was obvious to her that he had traits of fox and rabbit in him. He was covered from head to toe in light-brown fur, and while he had pointed ears like the fox on his left, they were several inches long and flopped against the back of his head, which faced down toward the floor. His long muzzle had a tiny pink nose on the end of it, and his brown feet were almost the same size as Judy's.

"This is our son, James," Judy said as she looked between Dawn and Leo, before turning back to the cub next to her, "James, honey? Do you know who those mammals are?" The cub gave a silent nod without turning his face up from the floor, "It's okay, sweetheart, you can say hi to them. They're not bad mammals."

James lifted his eyes for a moment toward the sheep and lion in front of him, struggling to keep contact with them instead of the ground. Dawn knew that feeling all too well and didn't blame the cub for his hesitance. If his parents had told him anything about their history, he had every reason in the world to fear them.

"Um… hi," the cub muttered as he looked at the Wallaby-Mart employees, then back down to the safety of the floor.

"H-hi there, James," Dawn forced herself to respond, "How old are you?"

"... Seven."

"Wow, seven. That's a pretty big number," Dawn said with a bit of a smile, "That's just three years away from ten!"

"What grade are you in, James?" Leo asked, drawing the attention of the young hybrid below him.

"Third."

"You fighting off all the girls with a stick?" Leo asked, the cub's eyes opening up wide with surprise.

"No!" he exclaimed before he covered his face, drawing a laugh from all four of the adults looking at him, "Why does everyone keep asking me that?"

"Alright, alright, fair enough. One day they'll figure out what they're missing."

"Well, we don't want to keep you guys for too long," Judy said while she rubbed the back of James's head while his face remained behind his paws, "We just wanted to chat with both of you for a few minutes and say… we're glad to see you guys out in the public again, and working to move forward with your lives."

"I guess that's one way of putting it," Dawn replied with a roll of her eyes, "It doesn't exactly make the same pay that it did working at City Hall, you know?"

"Don't put yourself down," Nick chimed in, "We know some guys in the same situation as you. Either of you remember a pair of wolves named Gary and Larry?"

"Oh yeah, two of the wolf guards I hired," Leo replied, "I know them. Those two were inseparable."

"Me and Judy keep touch with them semi-regularly. They had to find some minimum-wage jobs when they first got out, but they made it work. They're living together and doing pretty well for themselves, all things considered."

"Thanks, Mr. Wilde," Dawn replied.

"Mr. _Hopps_ , actually," Nick corrected with a wink.

"Oh! Well then — thank you for stopping by and chatting with us. It was nice to see you again, Mr. and Mrs. Hopps." Tapping her son on the shoulder, Judy and her husband exchanged waves with the Wallaby-Mart employees before turning to walk in the other direction away from them.

"Um… Ms. Bellwether? Mr. Lionheart?" James began, stepping toward the sheep and the lion just as they'd turned around. His parents stopped as well once they saw their son staying behind. "My… my mom and dad told me about you two and what you did a long time ago. She said that both of you made some bad decisions, and it caused a lot of mammals to get scared or even get hurt."

The lift Dawn's spirits had gained a moment ago began to plummet from the words James Hopps said to her. Judy had said they wanted to set an example of forgiveness for their son, but it seemed that lesson might not have stuck with him just yet. Even if it didn't, she wouldn't hold it against him. It was still hard for most customers at the store to see the name "Bellwether" on her shirt without drawing a look of fear or anger from them.

"The thing is…" James continued, rubbing his left elbow with his right paw, "You're the reason they had to work together in the first place. If it weren't for predators getting darted and turned savage, then getting kidnapped, Mom wouldn't have had any reason to work with Dad to find them. If that hadn't happened, they might not have gotten married, and… I might not have been born."

All four adult mammals stared in silence at what the cub had just said, standing with their mouths hanging open. Dawn had not expected the seven-year-old to think out the long run of the effect her and Leo's misdeed had caused, regarding some of the good things that had come from the occurrences as well. She didn't know how true that was, if James's existence had depended solely on Dawn conspiring against predators and Leo using shady means to maintain his job security; but it seemed that James had indeed learned the practice of forgiveness from his loving parents.

"So… thanks, I guess," James finished, before turning back and scampering toward his parents. Dawn watched the cub stand between them, Nick and Judy staring at each other before looking down at him. As they began to walk away, Nick lifted his paw and rubbed between James's long ears, while Judy gave his right shoulder a loving squeeze.

"Wow…" Leo said while he watched the family turn the corner down one of the store aisles, "That was pretty profound for a third grader, huh?" Leo looked down to see the sheep still looking in the direction of the Hopps's, even though they'd disappeared from sight. "Hey, Dawn? You okay?"

It took a moment for the sheep to gather her thoughts. For all of her life, she'd been reminded of the lives she'd harmed through her misdeeds, both from the prisoners in the correctional facility, and from her own visiting family too. She still knew she'd done horrible things and could never justify any right reason for doing them in the first place. But for the first time in her life, she felt a new sense of hope shining within her, knowing that such a beautiful thing had come about as a result of a terrible mistake she'd made.

"Yeah," Dawn replied, removing her glasses and wiping her eyes with her arm, "Yeah, I'm okay. Let's go have lunch, before someone else stops us." Putting her glasses back on, she looked back up to her boss. The lion had a warm expression on his face, showing he shared the same feeling she did at the moment. While both of them knew they weren't working the best jobs in the world, they felt glad that things had worked out to let them meet up with Nick and Judy once again, along with the newest addition to their company.

 _Big thanks to YFWE and Mr. Wilde777 for proofreading this story of mine only a few days before publication. I was in a pinch for a proofreader, and these guys really stepped up in a hurry. You guys rock! - Last story of 2017, guys. Thought I'd make a quick short story about a character I absolutely adore (and was a little disappointed to learn that she was the villain; really Disney, you had to pull that route on us again? Is it a requirement that every villain in the movies now appear to be a good guy at first and then do a heel turn later on? Bleh.) Anyway, not sure how many of you follow me on Tumblr, but I have one story that I'm going to be doing once the new year starts, but after that, I want my readers to decide what they want to read next, kind of like what I did during the summer. post/167099902352/time-for-a-writing-break There's a bunch of drivel about me ranting about school and llife and whatnot, but keep scrolling and you'll eventually get to the story descriptions, with there being a Strawpoll at the bottom of the list of stories for each series. So if you have a story you want me to write, cast that vote. And don't feel like you only have to choose one series; if you see something you like in each category, place a vote in each one! I'm planning on having a "final round" vote in about a week, which I'll probably let last until a few days after new year's (yup, I'm extending this initial round for you guys, just to give y'all a chance to vote). So, get to voting, and hope everyone else wants to see the same story you do! Thanks for following, everybody!_


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